Posts Tagged ‘
celebrate Christmas ’

Family members, grandchildren, aunts and uncles, grandparents are pointed in the direction of home as the Holiday season nears. With a major winter’s storm on the heels of many, there is, however, impending difficulty awaiting those who travel. Not to be discouraged, these hearty souls anticipate arrival to a warm hearth, genuine embraces, and the reunion celebration only this season can bring.

Its a different holiday this year. Its meaning has been deepened by events that have shaken the souls and spirits of thousands upon thousands. It is not quite being taken for granted, as often in the past. Its profound and moving emotion has reached into the soul and heart. Recognizing the value of family and friends and the fleeting way of life, we have heard the echoes of gun shots seeking to drown out the whispers of love.

Almost no holiday comes that doesn’t conjure up thoughts of Christmases past. Usually those feelings are prompted when transferring, from box to special spots throughout the house, all the long collected trinkets and holiday garlands, wreaths and tree ornaments that have been a part of family festivities for so many years.

Each one holds a special memory, a recollected moment, a Christmas that carried with it such sentiment that placing or hanging it almost always brings a tear or sometimes a smile. At 74, there are those pieces that recall memories of friends and family who shared in holiday celebrations, now what feels like long ago.

No matter how bedraggled some of those special pieces have become, they remain special and memorable and tug at heart and prompt moments of unrivaled joy and satisfaction. Part of the inexplicable value of those dog eared mementos is that they have been a part of

Reflect, for just a moment, what it took to get here. It took 364 days of living, breathing, and preparing for this day. We really didn’t know we were about such a task, but we were. For coming to this day, and the few that remain in this year, takes a “heap ‘o livin.” It takes meeting every day with expectation and strength to make those days count.

And now, we are finally here. Without being conscious that we were making ready for this day, we were. For our bosoms long for what this day brings and means. Our hearts need to be refueled with kindness, thoughtfulness, generous love, consideration for others, a spirit that keeps our attitude rich with compassion and sensitivity.

In order for the year past and the year to come to have any value and significance at all, we will have needed to be about the very

The baking is just about done. Except for the turkey, everything else is finished. The house is spotless, awaiting the arrival of your guests, their families and selected friends. The last of the gifts have been wrapped and placed strategically beneath the tree.

Now what? Beside a last minute errand or two, a review of the guest rooms, one more swipe at the floors, what is there left to do? Here are some ideas:

GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO RELAX. You and your guests will enjoy the holiday(s) more if you aren’t exhausted from making preparations.

Anticipating what Christmas will be like this year helps to set the bar by which it will be reached. Anticipating who and what and how this Christmas will be one to remember, will help it become so. This exercise, like many of the others we suggest now and then, is one which compels us to create the circumstances of a delicious holiday. So, what do you want your Christmas to look like? How do you want to share it? What will be the components to help it come together into a pattern of joy and satisfaction?

Here are a few provocative suggestions which may complement your own:

SHARING: an occasion for including in your own circle, through some means, a time to share with others. Others will include not only family, those nearest and dearest, but those beyond our immediate and intimate circle. It will involve taking the necessary time

One more week. One week from today and it will all come to its magnificent crescendo of celebration and happiness and shared joy as we celebrate the spirit of the season.

It will be acted out in super numerous ways. While observations will vary, the occasion itself offers much to everyone. While not all mark the day in identical ways, it is a time for reflection and peace, two calming experiences that lend themselves to our coming together as human beings with much in common. In the First World War, a time was set aside in which both sides observed a brief armistice. Peace fell on the battlefields of Europe and mankind understood, at least for a moment, that the quest for santiy and tranquility is universal.

The ghastly darkness of the season now invades us all. Pepper spray and the collapse of a shopper, while others go about their merry and indifferent way, as he lies there amidst the tinsel and garland and grasping hands, now haunts us all. They might have turned off the lights and announced the store was closing, for Christmas was, at that moment, really no more. It had ended, if it had ever really started.

And, if it had, it had surely got off to very bad and terrible start. If this were to be Christmas, 2011, something was terribly wrong. If it has been reduced to such ravenous appetites, filled only by the accomplished desire of getting what I want, then the season is little worth having or remembering or commemorating.